watercolour painting with demonstrations, help and shared experience

Devon

This is the finished version of the cinemascope painting of the fishing boats pulled up on the beach at the village of Beer on the Devon coast

I painted this group before some years ago now, as more of a full-size painting with the horizon and sky included and much more beach. I painted this detail, I may have said, as I have a frame that size, and as it looks like a driftwood finish, should work quite well. I still have a mount to cut, so when it is framed I will post an image, unless it is a total disaster.

This was one of those serendipitious moments that artists get occasionally. We were walking along the promenade with friends, some years ago now, and stretched below was this line of boats. The colours were the attraction, of course, and I painted these boats later on from my photographs.

Walking round art shops in the village later, I noticed that everyone else had the same idea. Obviously a favourite spot and a favourite subject for local artists. Still I sold my painting, and subsequently was commissioned by someone else to paint something similar

This should be the last painting going into my July exhibition, so if there are no more exhibition pressures, I might do some fun things for myself. We’ll see

Rather a faint study from the collage of photographs that I posted a few weeks ago, but sufficient, I think to form the basis for a painting. I have done this study before only differently, so this painting will be the usual journey of discovery that they all are, that fine line between success and failure

I mentioned before, I think, that this shot is from a visit some years ago now to the fishing village of Beer, on the south Devon coast. The fishing boats are dragged up on the beach, and make a colourful line-up, a mixture of bright reds and blues

This is the first time that I will have done this painting as a long horizontal shot. It should work, he says, hopefully. I will have to cut a different mount, though. The original one with the four slots just is not going to suit

So for now, it just remains to titivate these drawings and check that I have everything, including all those small props like chains, anchors etc. Then I can start mixing the underpainting

Years ago we went to the delightful little fishing village of Beer on the south Devon coast. These colourful boats were drawn up in a line on the beach, and I photographed them in several frames, as I have shown here

I painted them once and showed them. That painting sold. A year or two later, someone picked the painting out from the web site, and commissioned something like, so I painted something similar but not the same

At a craft fair recently I bought the frame in the photograph. The beading is Italian, heavily distressed and in a driftwood finish. The mount is split into four spaces, and is obviously intended for photographs.

It reminded me of something I had seen not long ago at an exhibition. An artist had used a frame like this using a long painting, which looked very effective, I thought. It obviously needs a long horizontal subject, which reminded me of the line of boats at Beer, so I am going to try it out. It may not work, as the spacing of the boats may be wrong, but I will try it anyway

If it turns out well, this could be my twelfth and last painting for the July exhibition, so we shall see